Thank you Lolo Kiko!
I heard you say repeatedly:
"Learn how to BEG!"
"Learn how to be a BEGGAR!"
Thank you mi abuelo.
Begging is often frowned upon
as a sign
of helplessness,
of powerlessness,
of being nobody,
of being worthless.
Begging is a scandal for many.
It is a forced acknowledgement that one is so impoverished that he cannot fend for himself and so is dependent on the beneficence of the other for his survival. Begging is maligned because it stands in the way of ambitions and aspirations, of decorum, proper etiquette and social niceties. Begging is unfortunately stereotyped as indicative of sloth and lack of industry.
I thank you Lolo Kiko not because I wrongly perceive your challenge to beg as papal endorsement to mendicancy.
I thank you because you plumbed from out of the depths of your heart another, truer and more profound meaning of begging.
You dared us learn how to beg.
But it is that kind which is the antidote to pride and self-importance.
The kind that brings us back to a common footing with our neighbors, especially the poor and the dispossessed, the marginalized, the disabled, the sick and the forgotten.
Thank you for urging us to learn to beg, that is, to receive, to be blessed, to be renewed, to be improved, to be enriched, and most importantly, to be TRANSFORMED into new persons by the very act of mercy and compassion we extend to one another!
Thank you dear Lolo Kiko for reminding us of this holy symbiosis, wherein the almoner also receives, and the beggar also becomes the benefactor, in this divine and other-worldly economy called love.
Your blessings upon us Holy Father!
Love,
Taong-Grasa-Para-Kay-Kristo
